Feb

6

1941

Wellington bomber captured on Boulogne raid

RAF Wellington bomber L7842 was lost on 6 February 1941 while in service with No. 311 Squadron, RAF, on a mission to Boulogne. Wellingtons were famously robust and the Germans were able to restore it for testing.

Meanwhile in the Libyan Desert the final push of Operation Compass brought yet another Italian surrender:

Following a lightning advance our troops succeeded in cutting off the enemy line of retreat which resulted in the capitulation of Benghazi on the 6th February. The enemy attempted to break out and made a persistent attack with over 100 tanks, but these were repulsed with heavy losses, including 60 of the latter. The full number of prisoners has not yet been ascertained, but it is understood that they have surrendered in large numbers, and include an Army Commander, a Corps Commander and many other senior officers. Quantities of war material of all descriptions have also been captured.

From the Military Situation Report for the week as reported to the War Cabinet. See TNA CAB 66/15/4 .

The odd thing about the fate of Wellington L7842 is that the Czech crew weren’t killed by the Germans despite their R.A.F. status.Also,given the apparently slight damage to the aircraft,one wonders why the pilot didn’t try harder to get back to base or to take the plane back out to sea and risk a ditching:the Czech’s must have known that they could well get special treatment from their captors.

Unfortunately there is often very little background information attached to the Bundesarchiv images, and I haven’t been able to discover much more … unless someone else knows about Allied planes captured by the Germans?